The present invention relates to information processing apparatus for managing information of a plurality of modes, such as schedule and address books.
For example, according to a conventional technique disclosed in Japanese publication of unexamined patent application (Tokukaisho) No. 60-8975, the time required for searching for data can be shortened by providing an index table to store the leading address and leading data of each sector of data which are recorded in numerical order.
However, the technique disclosed in this publication does not have management modes corresponding to more than one kind of data, such as telephone number, schedule, and memo, respectively. Namely, this technique does not relate to electronic devices for recording and searching for data according to mode.
Specifically, according to the data recording and searching method disclosed in the above-mentioned Japanese publication of unexamined patent application No. 60-8975, the index table is created according to data arranged in numerical order. Therefore, when searching for data according to mode, there is no searching method other than searching through data in sequence from the first data. Consequently, a high-speed search can not be achieved.
Moreover, when recording particular data, the order of recording the particular data is recorded after searching through recorded data. Hence, the time required for recording is the total of the time taken for searching and the time required for making a space corresponding to the length of the particular data by shifting data located at and after the position where the particular data is to be recorded.
Regarding a conventional electronic device capable of recording data, as disclosed in the Japanese publication of unexamined patent application No. 60-8975, there is a known device having an area for storing the addresses of data and an area for storing the contents of data separately. However, there is no device capable of recording and searching for data according to kind of data such as telephone number and schedule. Moreover, in order to record particular data, it takes the total of the time taken for searching for a position where the particular data is to be recorded by searching through data in sequence from the first data and the time required for making a space corresponding to the length of the particular data by shifting data located at after the position where the particular data is to be recorded. Consequently, high-speed recording could not be realized.
Meanwhile, in the case where the contents of data are stored while being grouped according to mode, in order to record particular data, it is necessary to search for an address at which the particular data is to be recorded and then shift data located at and after the address by an amount corresponding to the length of the particular data to be recorded. Therefore, when a number of data are stored at and after the address, it takes a long time to shift these data. Namely, it requires a long time for data recording.
It is an object of the present invention to realize high-speed processing in an information processing apparatus capable of recording and searching for data according to mode.
In order to achieve the above object, an information processing apparatus of the present invention for managing data of more than one kind of mode, includes a data contents memory for storing the contents of data, and a data address memory for storing the addresses of the respective data stored in the data contents memory while grouping the addresses according to mode.
In this structure, the addresses of the respective data are stored in the data address memory while being grouped according to mode. Therefore, when searching for data of a particular mode, it is only necessary to search through an area of the data address memory where the particular mode is stored, thereby achieving high-speed searching.
Moreover, in this information processing apparatus, the data contents memory can be arranged so as to store the contents of data which is to be newly recorded, after the end of the contents of already recorded data irrespectively of kinds of modes.
With this structure, when adding new data, the new data is stored after the end of the contents of data stored in the data contents memory irrespectively of kinds of modes. It is thus possible to achieve high-speed recording because there is no need to move the already recorded data.
Furthermore, the above-mentioned information processing apparatus can be arranged so that the data contents memory stores data while grouping the data according to mode, and include a mode data number memory for storing the number of the data of each mode stored in the data contents memory, and moving means for referring to the mode data number memory and moving the data of a mode including the largest number of data together to the head of the data contents memory.
When adding data of a particular mode to the data contents memory in which data of a plurality of modes are stored while being grouped according to mode, if data of other mode are stored subsequent to the particular mode, it is necessary to move the data of the subsequent mode backward so as to make a free space for the addition of the data of the particular mode. With this structure, since the data of the mode including the largest number of data are moved together to the head of the data contents memory, it is possible to reduce the volume of data which need to be moved for the addition of data, thereby realizing high-speed data recording.
For a fuller understanding of the nature and advantages of the invention, reference should be made to the ensuing detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.